Image correction is sometimes performed when an image obtained from a storage medium (a disk medium, a memory card, etc.) or a communication medium (broadcast wave, Internet Protocol [IP] network, etc.) is output on a display device (a liquid crystal display [LCD], an organic light emitting device [OLED] display, etc.). For example, with histogram equalization which is one of image correction procedures, a corrected output image can be obtained by equalizing the distribution of pixel values (e.g., luminance values) of an input image.
In histogram equalization, a pixel value with a higher frequency tends to be corrected in a greater scale. For example, in an image containing local low-luminance pixel (e.g., outlines), such pixels are corrected to a relatively brighter scale; as a result, the contrast between the pixels and the other pixels may be deteriorated. For example, the outline is corrected to a relatively brighter scale compared to the area around the outline; as a result, the image may become blurred.